Queen Karen has disappeared! Join the Amazon Princess Loren in her journey to find what happened to her mother. Play as Saren or Elenor, fight monsters, discover new places, find romance and defeat the evil Fost! Featuring different endings, 6+ romances, old school turn based RPG battles, beautiful manga art and sexy options. This game contains some nudity. A "cover up" option is available to make the game more appropriate for a younger audience.

This is one of the best VN hybrids you can play, if not the best (though that would be ex-aequo with Long Live The Queen). Still, it has a few quirks.

The good:
* It's looooooong. If you're into story-driven, "filled to the brim with dialogue" games, be they RPG or visual novels, no need to read any further: buy it.
* The story's great. As cliché as they come at times, but it works wonders.
* The characters are great, and as far as I'm concerned, memorable. The writer has put great care and effort here, and it shows. Absolutely lovely.
* The combats are interesting and enjoyable. Not overly long, with mild strategic options, it's simply a pleasure; and the fact you can skip random encounters makes it even better if you're not in the mood.
* The music's fine. Maybe not as memorable as the writing or the art, but it's fitting, doesn't get in the way and gets the job done.
* The art is gorgeous. Take any screenshot here. 'nuff said.

The bad:
* Man, Ren'py CLEARLY isn't tailored for this. So there's some sound stuttering every now and then - in particular during combat. Nothing particularly ugly but it's still unfortunate.
* The game is easy. Like, REALLY easy, even in hard/tactics mode. The addition of an Extreme mode would be most welcome, seriously.
* There are still a few typos and mistakes here and there; but given the amount of text in the game, it's easily forgivable.

The ugly:
* Equipment management in stores and for comparisons feels like a chore, and while the dual-wielding ability of some characters makes things quite interesting, it adds to the confusion.
* It may be long, but it's still too short. Loren 2, please. NOW. :)

Anyway. Beware that some of the art could be considered suggestive, even from the get-go (just look at the pictures). While this isn't exactly a hentai game, it may put some people off, which would be a pity, as you have the choice to show or hide the (even more) suggestive things.

Now I know what you’re thinking when you look at this game. “JP (the 3rd) that sounds very predictable and cliché right off the bat” and to be fair…it is. Now, is that a bad thing? Yes and No. No it isn’t because it doesn’t stop the characters from being uniquely them with their own back story and issues in the current world. The characters are all quite fun to interact with and each are given time in the VN to not only delve into their back stories but also have their own defining moments which range from touching to badass. The world itself is very rich and the complexities interwoven in it make it feel more like a real place. Slightly going into spoiler territory here there is a great scene about midway in the game where Loren, sheltered princess that she is, has to deal with the fact that she just can’t beat her chest and make everyone fall in line. Despite being the hero of our tale, she still has to work within the laws of the universe and it is awesome to watch play out and get that extra bit of development you wouldn’t normally see in these types of tales.

And yes it is because it’s the signal flag that LtAP isn’t trying to do much different story-wise than most other high fantasy epics that you’ve seen or read. I am reminded of the story of Katawa Shoujo where it all feels familiar and there are no big surprises: in other words it’s ultimately played safe outside of its character wardrobe. While during my game play I was focused on what was playing out in front of me, whenever I walked away from it my mind wandered off into spots I felt Winter Wolves could’ve took some risks.

Loren the Amazon Princess is a solid addition to the Winter Wolves lineup boasting a strong and likable cast, a fun story and a great RPG system that fully realizes all previous attempts to merge VNs and RPGs in a cohesive way. As well-crafted as it can be, there are plenty of areas where the story keeps it safe and familiar with only a few fireworks.